Yep, it's me, Hotshot.
Glad to be back in the online Ghostbuster world.
A special thanks goes out to Chad Paulson for the invite to join. Hope I do you proud.
Thought I'd start by showing off my current project.
As some of you know I was fortunate enough to get to do a bunch of promotional work on the Ghostbusters game with the Ohio Ghostbusters group. I got to do most of the costume work we had for our appearance at New York Comic Con (which was thrown together in 3 weeks) and was supposed to do the whole shebang for E3.
I was given ALOT of reference material, from hi-res versions of the screencaps we all saw online, to a bunch of programmer stuff that was really cool to get my hands on. Most of it was up close and personal shots of the props and all the silly details that appear on the props through the games multiple upgrades.
Well, many emails and shenanigans later, we didn't get to make the trip out to E3 afterall, and Atari barley had any presence either; and I never got to finish getting these made for the con, and our subsequent apperances here in the Midwest. It was a pretty monumental waste, and I hadn't returned to it, being pretty dissapointed, even leaving some molds on the shelf with half casts still in them.
Well, I've wrapped up a bunch of stuff, and have a lot of time to myself now that I'm a fully functioning ‘house husband,’ so I thought the time was right to return to these. I can tell you, I was literally shaking I was so happy to have gotten thes built after all the work a few months ago. We've been able to get some more promo work with the reease of the PSP version, so these won't go unseen.
There's alot of funny things about these props I'm looking forward to telling you as we move on through, but we'll get to all that.
I started with the basic thrower shape, and was quick to learn a few things about building a virtual prop. I found that there was a big difference between a film thrower and a virtual one.
WHile the main body is nearly on target, measurement wise, to the real deal, everything else is different. Longer handles, smaller posts, different decals, bigger hose barbs, etc. etc.
The main models at Terminal Reality were made, at first, with pics from Sony, but they got up close and personal with a beautiful pack, all be it inaccurate one from Texas, and those inaccurate details are now . .well . .. accurate.
Note that the front has a handle nearly as long as the rear one. With a fully extended clear tube, the front handle alone clocks in at 15 inches. This will become helpfull when I have to mount a Slime Blower to it!
So I got the thrower all built up, and added the shock plates to it, and tossed it into some silicone. These bodies are all slush molds, or a one part molded detail part. I had wanted to keep it fast and simple.
Here's what I've got going so far!
Shock Blast Thrower
The Shock plate has a bargraph at the top, which shines blue. While I won't be lighting this one (it's the prototype made from seconds and first pulls), later version are cast in clear blue so light can shine through. I chose not to have the same blue LED on the heatsink, thinking that a heatsink and LEDs don't mix. Most of the fun doing these has been mixing the real with the virtual.
The bottom plate/cooling system had very little reference available, but I got lucky on one or two shots and was able to get it done right. The next two versions will be mounted on this as well.
Slime Teather, Blower Mark II
The Slime box was simple, and follows the line of the shock plate, making it very easy to mount along side. While the virtual deail ontop is a simple trapazoid box, I just couldn't resist adding some V8 parts a-la Star Wars. The large knob on the side of the thrower now moves to the top of the blower. The large dial in the center will have a nice clear acrylic cover. What's gonna be really fun will be the slime filled hose that comes out of the back. THe front blower takes the size of the gun to a new level of big.
Mason Colider
This is what takes the thrower from big to frickin' huge. A small plate is added on the side, and the drum is added to the front, and has more hoses coming out of it than the pack did in the films. What's really fun and all sorts of Mad Science is the vacume tubes that will be on top. Once everything on this is finished, the gun will be nearly about the size of the pack.
These are just the main bodys, resin skinned rigid foam, all screwed or glued together.
What reallly fun, is the these are all HEAVILY weathered. I felt like a dude with a dremel at ILM in late 76, just taking chunks outta these props. These will also get heavy washes and lots of rust once painting begins. I already did a paint and decal test on the Shock Thrower, and am starting over so they all match.
More to come!!! Oh, and these aren't for sale. Sorry . . .
A small recommendation, go out an buy Gorilla Super glue. It is badd-azz. The Mason Coliider alone has been dropped three times.
You should really do your research before you open your mouth and Judging by what I am read “you never studied”